


Packages and cats

by onefootintheboilinghotlava



Series: Crappy attempt at writing Sterek [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Neighbour! AU, Tons of packages and Stiles panic, cute neighbour who never know how to talk to others
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 13:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16305710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onefootintheboilinghotlava/pseuds/onefootintheboilinghotlava
Summary: So as promised, this is the edited version of my fic......





	Packages and cats

**Author's Note:**

> So as promised, this is the edited version of my fic......

The door bell rang while Stiles was working on his manuscript, struggling to edit through his full draft. Editing was mostly fine, but his mind tended to get all wrapped up in thinking about how to change the phrasing, how necessary was one character's inner thoughts and all that until it all got jumbled up and in a mess. So it took like the third ring for him to realise it was his own doorbell ringing, instead of some imaginary sounds from being immersed into his own fantasy world, and to answer the door. 

‘Sir, do you know Mr. D. Hale?’ A delivery guy stood at his doorstep with a box. Stiles glanced over at his neighbour’s empty house. 

‘Umm…sorta? I mean, he’s my neighbour and he’d nod at me whenever we see each other?’ 

‘Would you help receive his package? I’ve been waiting here for fifteen minutes and called him at least ten times but I couldn’t even leave a voice message! It’s company’s standard protocol to have someone signing for the delivery.’ The delivery guy was practically pleading him. 

‘Hey no problem. Sometimes he’d be gone for a few days.’ 

‘Gosh thank you! I’m still on a time limit, thanks!’ The delivery guy was so relieved to dump the box at him and held out another form for Stiles to sign before quickly leaving on his bike. Stiles was left dumbfounded and holding a package slightly heavier than he anticipated. 

He shrugged and got back to his house, grabbed a paper and pen, scribbled ‘Hey Derek, your delivery guy couldn’t wait on you, so I signed on your package instead. Come get it when you’re back. Your neighbour, Stiles’. He sticked the note on Hale’s door and went back to his editing. 

When the day ended, Derek Hale had not knocked on his door and his windows all remained dark. Stiles shrugged to himself and went to bed. 

* * *

After two days of intensive editing, Stiles decided he deserve to eat out to celebrate. He brought his notebook out, went for lunch and a walk in the park for some inspiration. 

By the time he drove back home, he was thinking of going for a run or something. As he got out of the car though, another delivery guy seemed very relieved to see him appear and rushed towards him.

‘Hmm...are you D. Hale’s neighbour? Could you please please please receive this for him? I’m on schedule and I’m already late for my next delivery. I can’t find his mailbox and no one answer his cell. I mean, the least he could do is to let voice message in!’ This delivery guy was way more frustrated than the last one, Stiles observed. 

‘Umm...sure. Where do you need me to sign or something, for taking this for him?’ Stiles thought back on his own takeout delivery job days and yeah the guy was completely justified in his frustration. 

‘Oh yeah yeah you gotta sign a form. Please sign here. Sir, you really save my day. Thank you!’ With that, the guy practically dumped the package onto Stiles’ hand and ran towards his car. Thankfully, this time was only a smaller soft bag. Stiles glanced at his neighbour’s house again, it was still within Derek’s normal days gone from the house. As neighbours go, Stiles tended to think he was an okay neighbour and if it was anyone else, he’d have baked seasonal pies or cupcakes in greeting and make sure to get to know the family or couple. Yet this was Derek Hale, one hot piece of fireman who save kitten from trees for little girls and more heroic things as a living. Stiles tried giving a welcome pie to the guy and was just too flustered to even function in normal Stiles’ term. After that, he had resorted to just waving the guy hi whenever they cross path and nothing more. (Well…unless you count peeking over the window when the guy worked out or gardened, out there sweating and half-naked.) 

‘Oh well better write another note to let him know.’He put the package on top of the last one and wrote another note to stick to Derek’s door. 

Somehow, over the course of the week, Stiles received six more of one D. Hale’s packages’ delivery. It included two big boxes, two smaller ones which shaped like books, two more softer ones in just a packaged bag. It took him the whole week before curiosity got the better of him. He poked a little and checked every single word printed on each of those packages, trying to sort out why would his neighbour order so many things in a row AND not be around when they were being delivered.

 

* * *

‘Scott? Seriously though, do you think this is a scheme? To accuse me of stealing his stuff? Or maybe he’s on escape from some crime and just have all the stuff delivered here for some reasons?’ Stiles called his best friend one evening. Since aside from editing, he had literally nothing else to do. So he spent his free time just speculating over and over again what made Derek gone for over a week and what might all those packages be. He had been guessing so much so that he might as well have written a short story out of all the things he thought of. 

‘Stiles, we’ve gone over this. It’s normal, okay? Kira said her roommate practically helped her receive her whole dorm wardrobe one time, because her parents called her back home for emergency. Besides, you said your neighbour does disappear for a few days or so every so often.’ Scott groaned, Kira could be heard in the background cooing at the two dogs they had. 

‘But we haven’t been in college for ages! It’s officially been a week! What if people start to think I’m stealing his packages?’ 

‘Then unless the guy knew beforehand who exactly was gonna delivery his packages and plan with them to accuse you, some of these delivery guy can help testify you were just helping.’ 

‘Oh my god, Scott maybe he did! Maybe he saw me creepily looking at his windows sometimes and decided to frame me for something!’ 

‘Stiles…this is not one of your spy stories, okay? Just do some gardening and stop thinking about your neighbours’ packages. I gotta help Kira bath the dogs, bye.’ 

With Scott hanging up, Stiles slumped down on his own couch, staring at the pile of packages by his door.

‘I mean, it’s not my fault that the guy might have gone on holiday without telling his neighbour to help him receive some packages, right?’ Stiles spoke to no one in the house. It was times like this that he seriously considered adopting a cat, so people won’t think he’s crazy for talking to thin air. 

Just when he decided to search for the nearest rescue online and check if they have adoption possible, he heard the familiar sounds of a Camaro pulling up the driveway. He dashed to the windows and saw the sleek black Camaro parking once again at his neighbour house. It felt like a huge relief to Stiles’s strained mind and so without thinking, he just stacked up the bigger boxes and ran out of the door. By the time Derek and his companion managed to get out of the car, Stiles was right there holding all the packages in front of them.

 

‘Umm...Hey Derek, all your packages got delivered to me while you were gone. I wrote a note and sticked them on your door but seeing that you’re here now. I’m just gonna give all this back to you, I folded all the receipts into the small folder. So......here you go!’ Only after Stiles blurted out all that, did he realise how panicky he was. Derek was carrying two boxes himself and his companion, a girl just slightly shorter than him, was carrying another two boxes out from the car. There was no way they could also carry the packages as well and also Stiles could totally have waited until they were inside the house to knock on his door again. But before he could open his mouth again, the girl spoke up.

‘What sort of neighbour are you? Can’t you see that we’re both carrying stuff, besides couldn’t you have waited until we got into the house?’ 

‘Oh shit! No sorry! I’ve been panicking all over these package getting to my place...I ugh...sorry! I’ll just go back and umm......’ 

Luckily, Derek took mercy on him and said. ‘Cora, it’s just Stiles. He tends to ramble a lot, and yeah’ sorry about those packages. I did order those, hoping they’d arrive before I got back. I thought they’d all give me a delivery card or something, sorry for that, Stiles.’ 

‘Oh it’s...no problem. I’ll get these back to my house...You two feel free to knock on my door when you want to pick up the packages.’ With that and his burning red cheeks, Stiles rushed back into his own house and mope about being an idiot in front of Derek again. 

Thinking back, seeing Derek always made him fluster and act even more fidgety than usual. Yes, he could admit to himself long time ago that he had developed a slight crash on his neighbour, but how could he not? When the guy rescued kittens from trees for children at the park, worked as a fireman, helped out with the county’s country fair, let children paint on his face. Besides, the guy was built to the nines, grown a perfect beard and once even used his own time to craft a wooden horse for Mrs. Lahey’ new baby, just because the woman was talking about how her own parents used to have a handcrafted wooden horse for her but her abusive ex-husband thrashed it away and now her newborn son would not have one. Stiles swore he only knew because he happened to glance over to the house occasionally while the man worked on it. (Okay those days almost killed Stiles, because it should be illegal for Derek Hale to wear a tank top and work on a cute wooden horse midday under the sun.) The man might look gruff from afar, but given the chance he’s nice to almost everyone. 

So naturally, Stiles could not act natural at all in front of Derek Hale. The first time they met, just as Derek was moving in. Stiles knew someone was moving in and was baking a welcome pie way beforehand. However, just as he knocked on Derek’s door and saw the man, he straight out dropped the pie in front of his doorstep and immediately offered to clean it up for the guy. Derek had glanced at the mess and just grunted out ‘No thanks, I’ll do it myself.’ Which half-scared off Stiles, so he baked another pie and only dared to leave it at the man’s doorstep with a note apologising once more the next morning. It took Derek seeing him around the Sheriff station and fire station a few more times before he started to be nice to Stiles.Being nice only meant they would nod at each other whenever they cross path between coming back home from work and going to work. But for Stiles, at least the guy wasn’t grunting at him and he wasn’t facing any form of rejection from them nodding at each other. 

 

Of course, the doorbell rang again when Stiles was not paying attention. So it almost startled him into thinking it’s another delivery man until he remembered just minutes ago of his own idiotic act in front of Derek Hale. This time, at least he could answer the door calmly. 

‘Hey Derek.’ He opened the door and greeted. 

‘Stiles, I could pick up the packages now. Sorry for those taking up your space for the past week.’ Derek smiled apologetically at him, which was definitely a first. 

‘Ugh it’s really no problem. It just freaked me out a bit that you’re gone for quite a bit and suddenly it’s like I got a package every single day. Sorry about earlier again.’ Stiles helped pile up the packages on Derek’s hands as he said. 

‘Actually, would you help me carry the smaller ones to my house? I’m afraid they might fall if I just stack them up?’ 

‘Oh no problem.’ They walked towards Derek’s house in silence for a few moments before Stiles just couldn’t help and asked. 

‘What are they for anyway? You said earlier that you’d hoped all these would deliver before you arrive?’ 

‘Oh they’re all cat supplies. Cora works with a animal rescue up in her city and they recently got flooded with abandoned cats for some reasons. There are two in particular that keep not getting people to adopt them and Cora was…worried about the kitties. Besides, she had been long plotting on getting me a pet for some time. So…’ He shrugged, holding up the boxes. 

‘You must be smitten with her though, right? I mean, or else you wouldn’t have ordered all these supplies just because she asked to take one or two cats in? Unless you’ve always been a secret cat lover and she found out?’ Stiles’ joked. 

‘Oh no no no god she’s my younger sister. Cora’s just been pestering me to get a pet. One, because I have a house and enough space and time for a pet. Two, “you’ve been alone for three years! I don’t want you to be alone in your city, without Laura or me around!” which actually translate to “my apartment doesn’t allow pet, so you should have one for me to play with when I visit you”.’ 

Stiles felt his cheeks burning again, he should have recognise the similar eyebrows and chins. 

‘Sorry.’ 

‘It’s fine.’ 

By then, Derek had opened his door and dropped off the packages on the floor. A blur of fluffy white and black fur somehow appeared by Derek and gently nudging on his calf. Derek immediately knelt to pet on its head and coo at it. It took another moment for him to look back at Stiles. 

‘Oh alright, this is Pumpkin.’ Derek carried the little cat in his arms as he stood back up to introduce his cat. It was practically the cutest thing Stiles had ever witnessed. 

‘Oh hm hi Pumpkin. I guess I’ll leave you to your cats, have fun!’ Stiles was just about to turn around when Derek caught his wrist. 

‘Um…actually would you stay for dinner? I heard that you like cats and……I can cook some mean meatballs, to thank you for keeping my packages all week?’ Derek stuttered and blushed, his hands holding tight onto Pumpkin as if it was his safety blanket. Stiles could not believe the words he had said. 

‘Are you…asking me to have dinner with you? That you’d cook? Like a date? Because no matter how may parcel I got for you, there’s no need to cook me dinner as a thank you for what most decent neighbour would do?’ Stiles stared wide-eye at Derek. 

‘Yes? But if you don’t want that, I could just leave coffee for you in the morning to say thank you?’ Derek tried, holding tighter on Pumpkin, which started to meow at him and tried to crawl out of his hold. 

‘Oh no no no! I’d love to have dinner with you, especially if it’s a date.’ Only then did Derek loosened his hold on Pumpkin.

The two of them stood by the door and just smiled at each other until a voice rang behind them. 

‘Not that I’m not proud of my brother’s finally ask his crush out, but can you two move the eye sex somewhere INSIDE the house and not in the way of me leaving you two alone?’ Cora glared at them, bag on her back and ready to go. Stiles almost jumped away at her words, luckily Derek’s arms were just there to steady him. 

‘Just leave, Cora.’ Derek led Stiles further into the house and just waved Cora away. 

She grumbled ‘men are stupid’ as she shut the door behind them. 

‘Sorry about my sister, she learnt no manners from our mother.’ Derek whispered beside Stiles’ ears. 

‘Well you can always make it up by kissing me.’ Stiles’ brain froze for a moment, worrying that it might be too soon, but Derek’s quick to leave a kiss on his cheek. 

‘Good to know.’

* * *

A few years later, when Derek gave his speech at their wedding, ‘I didn’t know my panic ordering for a few cats would score me my husband but thank god it did. And now no one in my family can ever scold me for panic ordering in advance anymore.’ 

‘IT’S ONLY BECAUSE YOU TWO ARE DUMB IDIOTS WHO CAN’T PROPERLY ASK EACH OTHER OUT LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE!’ Cora shouted all across the dining hall. 


End file.
